Distinguishing Intrapulmonary Immune Cells from Intravascular Immune Cell Populations: the Intrajugular Approach

Circadian rhythms refer to oscillations in various biological process that occur with a 24 h period. At the molecular level, such rhythms are comprised of a web of transcriptional-translational feedback loops (TTFL) of core clock genes. Individual tissues and organ systems, including the immune system, have their own clock. In the systemic circulation, various members of the CD45⁺ population oscillate across the day; however, many of these rhythms are not identical or even similar in the tissue resident CD45⁺ leukocyte population. When studying the role of circadian regulation of lung inflammation, CD45⁺ within the lung may need to be investigated. However, despite optimized perfusion methods, leukocytes trapped from the circulation persist in the lungs. The goal in designing this protocol was to distinguish between intravascular and intraparenchymal leukocytes. Towards this end, mice are injected with a fluorescent tagged CD45 antibody intrajugularly shortly before lung harvest. Thereafter, the lung is digested using a customized lung digestion technique to obtain a single cell suspension. The sample is stained for the regular panel of antibodies for intraparenchymal immune cells (including another CD45 antibody). Flowcytometric analyses shows a clear elucidation of the populations. Thus, the method of labeling and defining intrapulmonary CD45⁺ cells will be particularly important where the behavior of intrapulmonary and circulating immune cells are numerically and functionally distinct.